TZUTC: -0500   
   MSGID: 368.fidonet_ufo@1:3634/60 2dae639e   
   PID: Synchronet 3.19b-Win32 master/a2a9dc027 Jan  2 2022 MSC 1928   
   TID: SBBSecho 3.14-Win32 master/a2a9dc027 Jan  2 2022 MSC 1928   
   BBSID: RICKSBBS   
   CHRS: UTF-8 4   
   SUBJECT: A UPDATE ON CROP CIRCLES                            FILE: UFO1228   
      
                         
                         
                      MUFONET-BBS Network - Mutual UFO Network   
                     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
                FIELD OF DREAMS? - AN UPDATE ON THE CIRCLE PHENOMENA   
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
   [Contributed by Georgia MUFON]   
      
   Not far from the mysterious ring of ancient megaliths at Stonehedge, a new   
   phenomenon is sculpting circles in the cornfields of Southern England.  More   
   than 400 times last summer, an unseen agent blew across growing crops,   
   creating circular patterns in the fields.  The phenomenon almost always   
   occurred at night, sometimes accompanied by a warbling sound and a moving   
   orange light.   
      
   Inside each perfectly drawn circumference, the corn lies bent but not broken,   
   with its still-growing stalks swept into a matted and sometimes woven pinwheel   
   --turning now clockwise, now counter-clockwise.  When viewed form the air,   
   many of the circles form complex patterns, arrayed as rings within rings,   
   bull's-eye-style, for example, or of chains of giant beads connected by bars   
   and embellished with exterior arcs.  If a circle is laid down early in the   
   season, when the crop is green, the rapidly growing stalks soon pick   
   themselves  up and grow straight again, so that the circle fades from sight   
   until it appears only faintly etched into the vegetation.  Once in a while, a   
   circle forms with such force that plants are apparently blasted out of the   
   center.   
      
   Researchers from all over the world are struggling to understand what causes   
   the phenomenon and have written at least half a dozen books about the circles-   
   but no one has arrived at the definitive explanation.  The conflicting   
   theories, amassing almost as quickly as the circles themselves, cover   
   everything from extraterrestrial visitors and the testing of star-wars weapons   
   technology to tornado-like atmospheric conditions and plain old-fashioned   
   hoaxing.   
      
   The excitement over the fields is recent, but the phenomenon itself turns out   
   to have a long history in the English croplands.  Indeed, many legends from   
   the Middle Ages refer to circles that formed in fields overnight.  Back then,   
   pundits talked of fairies dancing through the corn, or of mowing devils who   
   came in the night and cut the crops in rings.  Over the centuries, some   
   scientists say, circles have been laid down continually.  But they have been   
   seen only occasionally and reported rarely.  Today, with journalists,   
   researchers and tourists literally combing the countryside for crop circles,   
   more and more have been found.   
      
   Although circles have since been spotted in parts of the United States,   
   Canada, and Australia, most have cropped up in a area of England called the   
   Wessex Corridor or Wessex Triangle--a triangular tract of land about 40 miles   
   on each leg in the southern-central part of the country.  Over the past ten   
   summers, the phenomenon has become increasingly widespread, with the circles   
   forming more and more frequently, in more numerous locations, and in even more   
   intriguing patterns.   
      
   Some of the patterns developed over time, as in the case of a large circle   
   found last May with three concentric rings around it.  Days later, airborne   
   observers spotted a fourth ring a thousand feet wide and embracing the others   
   in its circumference, leading some people to speculate that a peculiar fungus   
   or virus was responsible.  Others have attributed the patterns to hedge-hogs,   
   perhaps, or even hippies.   
      
   "It is a mystery," concedes Colin Andrews, an electrical engineer and local   
   government official in Hampshire, who describes himself as one of the three   
   foremost researchers on the circle phenomenon.  Andrews brings a brisk,   
   British enthusiasm to bear on the problem, but his style of study has earned   
   him a lot of enemies in the global scientific establishment.  Some claim that   
   his book on the subject, "Circular Evidence", co-authored with Pat Delgado, is   
   rife with circular reasoning.  For the record, Andrews says, "There is no   
   question at all that the phenomenon is beyond physics and science as we know   
   it to be."   
      
   "There is now an extraordinary amount of data leaning heavily in the direction   
   of some form of intelligence," says Andrews.  I'm not saying extraterrestrial   
   intelligence.  But I don't rule out extraterrestrial intelligence."  The   
   evidence for this equivocal comment is what Andrews calls the "precise   
   placement" of the circles. They never haphazardly lap over the edge of a   
   field, he points out, though some circles stretch hundreds of feet in   
   diameter.  Instead, they array themselves to within a fraction of an inch of   
   roadways or hillsides as though they'd been placed there by an unseen hand.   
      
   Andrews tried to get the drop on the circle makers last July and August with   
   his Operation Blackbird--a surveillance effort he set up on the Salisbury   
   Plain, in the heart of circle country. His scientific equipment consisted of   
   thermal imaging cameras, infrared and low-light cameras, and tape recorders.   
   Andrews himself was home in bed when the excitement unfolded in the form of   
   flashing lights on one of the monitors, but a telephone call quickly summoned   
   him to the site at 4:00 am.   
      
   At sunrise the observers could see circles alright, in the fields where the   
   lights had been, but they turned out to be the handiwork of hoaxers.  The   
   thermal imaging cameras had picked up the body heat of the pranksters.   
      
   "our location had been known," Andrews notes ruefully.  (This is hardly   
   surprising, because the British press grants ample coverage to Colin Andrew's   
   ideas and activities.)   
      
   Shortly after the grounding of Operation Blackbird, Andrews notes, British   
   Army researchers got film footage of an orange light in the sky moving slowly   
   to the east, dipping down to ground level, and then picking up speed before   
   disappearing behind a dense forest.  On the morrow, several circles appeared   
   in the path of the orange light.  The film may air in a BBC special.   
      
   Other investigators disagree with Andrews and Delgado.  Terence Meaden, an   
   atmospheric physicist and founder of the Tornado and Storm Research   
   Organization (TORRO) as well as the Circles Effect Research Group (CERES)   
   says, "Their belief in a paranormal presence not only attracts hoaxers but   
   makes it very hard for me to convince the scientists of the world that these   
   circles merit serious study."  Meaden first laid eyes on two corn circles some   
   five miles from his Wiltshire home in August of 1980.  He immediately fired   
   off a short scientific paper explaining them in meteorological terms and has   
   been refining his theory ever since: the circles are caused by whirlwinds,   
   Meaden believes, that break down, hit the ground, and weave the crops into the   
   tangled patterns of their spiraling winds.   
      
   Electrical forces are also involved, Meaden adds.  As the vortex sucks in air,   
   it strips electrons off the molecules, turning them into ions that glow in the   
   dark.  Airborne particles of pollen, dust and sea salt hovering over the   
   fields accelerate the buildup of electric charge inside the whirlwind, making   
   it hum and shimmer with orange, yellow or red light.  From a distance, the   
   bulge in the whirlwind may look like ball lightning, and it's noise may sound   
   similar to humming, buzzing, or even a siren's wail.   
      
   Numerous other researchers embrace Meaden's theory, including Jenny Randles   
   and Paul Fuller of the British UFO Research Association, who are the authors   
   of "Controversy of the Circles" and, more recently, "Crop Circles: A Mystery   
   Solved".  Fuller is also the editor and publisher of a new scientific journal   
   called "The Crop Watcher", which keep a weather eye on the circles phenomenon   
   and takes a staunchly meteorological stand.   
      
   As far as Fuller and Randles are concerned, Meaden's theory also accounts for   
   a good number of UFOs sighted in Wiltshire.  This is because the strong   
   electrical effects that are thought to charge the circle-making whirlwinds can   
   set compass needles spinning, stall cars, stop watches, cause power failures,   
   and fill the air with cracking, buzzing noises.   
      
   These kinds of events are also the stuff of UFO reports.  Indeed, Randles   
   points out, circles appear at sites of reported close encounters.  But in   
   reality, it is the circle phenomenon that produces the illusion of the alien   
   spacecraft, Randles maintains, not some extraterrestrial beings whirling their   
   messages over the ground.   
      
   "We now have twenty-four eyewitnesses who all report an atmospheric vortex--   
   similar to a tornado or whirlwind," Randles says.  This is an astounding   
   number of firsthand accounts, given that 90 to 95 percent of crop circles are   
   thought to be formed between three and five o'clock in the morning.  (Other   
   more mystically oriented crop watchers holding vigils in the cornfields have   
   observed no such vortex but instead reported hundreds of "black rod-like   
   things, or thongs," according to one account, "that jumped up and down above   
   the top of the crop."   
      
   As for the fact that the circles seem to be increasing in quantity and   
   complexity, Randles offers a number of down-to-earth possibilities that could   
   affect circle-making conditions, from pesticide spraying to the removal of   
   hedgerows, to chlorofluorocarbon buildup in the atmosphere, to the depletion   
   of the ozone layer.   
      
   "We've been called the greatest party poopers in history," says Randles, who   
   finds the geometric regularity of the circles no more astounding then the   
   complex formations to be seen among snowflakes.  "People would rather come up   
   with the daffiest solutions possible."   
      
   Some of the sober solutions were aired publicly last June 23, when Meaden   
   chaired the First International Conference of the Circles Effect, which drew   
   scientists from as far away as Japan and the United States to a one-day parley   
   at Oxford University.  Animated exchanges between the presenters and the   
   audience, which included Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado, were the order of the   
   day.  At the end, Meaden told the gathering that decades more research might   
   be required to pin down all the details of the full answer.   
      
   "Just listening to these people was such fun," commented American attendee   
   John T. Snow, professor of atmospheric science at Purdue University.  "There   
   was lots of discussion, but very little real study reported."  Most of the   
   "crop circle studies," he said, entailed visiting the sites and speculating on   
   the sights there.  Snow's own conjecture is in line with meaden's--that most   
   of the circles are the artifacts of whirlwinds.  Snow thinks many of the more   
   elaborate patterns in the cornfields are hoaxes, perpetrated to keep news   
   media interest in the crop circles alive.  Says Snow, "There's probably an   
   interesting meteorological phenomenon behind them that should be studied, but   
   it's tough to do serious science in such an atmosphere of sensationalism."   
      
   Christopher Church, an expert in tornado-like flows at Miami University in   
   Oxford, Ohio, also attended the circles conference and also goes along with   
   the vortex idea--up to a point.  "I think the very bizarre features, such as   
   the rectangular patterns and arcs that look like photographs or sand   
   paintings," Church says, "can't be explained by natural causes.  You could   
   call it hoaxing, or you could call it an artistic challenge."   
      
   Church is sufficiently challenged by the problem to do some laboratory   
   testing.  He plans to construct a model of two to three square miles of the   
   surface of the Hampshire countryside, where many circles appear.  His tabletop   
   model will miniaturize the area's horseshoe-shaped depression surrounded by   
   hills.  Then he'll put the model in a whirlwind tunnel, blow smoke at it from   
   half a dozen directions, and see whether vortices appear.  The key question,   
   he says, is not whether vortices could create the circles in the corn, but   
   whether they actually form as frequently as the vortex model suggests.   
      
   The vortex theory, however, is not the only scientific explanation.  Eying the   
   circles from across the English Channel, optical engineer Jean-Jacques Velasco   
   of the CNES (The French counterpart to NASA) declares that "no known   
   meteorological phenomenon will produce rings on the ground, much less double   
   rings, without touching the vegetation in the middle of the rings."  Instead,   
   he suggests, the circles may be the result of military tests of advanced star-   
   wars weaponry.   
      
   Indeed, when Velasco observed vegetation from crop circles under a microscope,   
   he found that bent stalks plucked from crop circles looked as though they had   
   been twisted and subjected to some form of heating.   
      
   The heat source, he speculated, could be an infrared or microwave beam of high   
   intensity.  Such a beam could be produced by the powerful lasers used in   
   experimental defensive weapons under development in the United States, the   
   Soviet Union, and possibly the United Kingdom as well.  The proliferating   
   patterns in the cornfields, by this argument are the fallout from testing a   
   new defense strategy.  Although Valesco's ideas are roundly rejected by   
   British and American researchers, Valesco will be testing the idea in his   
   laboratory on a small scale, by conducting experimental test shooting of   
   plants with microwave and infrared guns.   
      
   Other theories range from the mischievous (tracks left by helicopters flying   
   upside down) to the mysterious (warnings of ecological disaster chiseled in   
   the corn in ancient Sumerian script).  Some modern observers cling to the   
   notion that the circles are the work of fairies or nature spirits.   
      
   "I've been studying these circles for five years now," notes Archie Roy,   
   honorary senior fellow in physics and astronomy at the University of Glasgow,   
   a researcher well-known for his interest in the paranormal, "and I don't   
   believe we have any real idea of what they are or what causes them."   
      
   Roy is president of the newly formed Centre for Crop Circle Studies, which is   
   charged with building up a national computer database of relevant facts about   
   all the crop circles they inhabit, their size, and the meteorological   
   conditions in the areas where they form.  One of the center's first official   
   acts was to meet with the National Farmers Union and draw up a "Code of   
   Practice" for researchers wishing to inspect circles on private land.   
   (Investigators are expected, for example, to ask farmer's permission before   
   entering the fields, to keep the gates closed, and to refrain from littering.)   
      
   The first issue of the Centre's fledgling journal of crop circle studies,   
   called "The Cereologist", appeared late last summer and ran true to its   
   editorial policy of standing "receptive to the news, views, and theories of   
   any group or individual who is engaged in these studies, subject only to their   
   courteous expression."  Beyond the usual suspects (atmospheric effects,   
   fairies, extraterrestrial, hoaxers), the journal gave reports from dowsers,   
   channelers, and mystics.   
      
   Novelist Patrick Harpur, a student of alchemy, offered this view of the crop   
   circles; "They are like dreams," he said, "To interrogate them is to force   
   them to lie, to interpret them is to diminish their richness; to explain them   
   is to misunderstand them...Crop circles are like mouths that speak to us of   
   the strangeness and depth of things--speak to the heart more than the head and   
   to the soul more than the heart."   
      
   =END=   
      
   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   
                    
     **********************************************   
     * THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *   
     **********************************************   
      
   Cori,   
   telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23   
   http://ricksbbs.synchro.net:8080   
   --- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32   
    * Origin: Rick's BBS - telnet://ricksbbs.synchro.net:23 (1:3634/60)   
   SEEN-BY: 1/120 18/0 50/22 105/81 106/201 123/0 126 180 525 755 3001   
   SEEN-BY: 123/3002 124/5016 128/187 129/14 305 153/757 7715 154/30   
   SEEN-BY: 154/110 203/0 218/700 220/6 221/0 222/2 226/30 227/114 229/110   
   SEEN-BY: 229/112 134 206 317 426 428 470 664 700 705 240/1120 5832   
   SEEN-BY: 250/1 263/1 266/512 280/464 5003 5006 291/111 292/854 8125   
   SEEN-BY: 301/1 320/219 322/757 341/66 234 396/45 423/120 460/58 256   
   SEEN-BY: 460/1124 5858 633/280 712/848 1321 770/1 902/26 2320/105   
   SEEN-BY: 3634/0 12 56 57 60 61 5020/400 8912 5054/30 5075/35   
   PATH: 3634/60 12 222/2 263/1 280/464 460/58 229/426